If you’ve been living in a council property and dreaming of the day you can officially call it your own, you’ve probably kept a nervous eye on the headlines lately. In May 2026, the Right to Buy landscape has shifted dramatically under the new Social Housing Bill.
The government is essentially pulling the handbrake on the old system. The goal? To stop the “drain” of social housing stock while still offering a path to ownership for long-term tenants. If you’re planning to apply, the rules of the game have changed, and the clock is ticking.
The “10-Year Wait” Rule
The biggest shock for many is the jump in eligibility. Previously, you only needed to be a public sector tenant for three years to apply. Under the new 2026 proposals, that has been tripled.
You now need to have been a tenant for 10 years before you can even pick up an application form. This is a massive shift designed to prioritize families who have “paid into the system” for a decade, rather than those looking for a quick route onto the ladder.
The Vanishing Discounts
If you were hoping for the massive 70% discounts of the past, I have some bad news. The “golden era” of Right to Buy discounts is effectively over.
The new 2026 math looks like this:
- The Starting Point: Your discount now starts at just 5% of the property value once you hit that 10-year mark.
- The Slow Climb: You gain an extra 1% discount for every additional year you’ve lived there.
- The Ceiling: The maximum discount is now capped at just 15% of the property’s value (or a regional cash cap, whichever is lower).
Compare that to the old maximums of over £100,000, and you can see why many are calling this the “Right to Buy Lite.”
The 35-Year “New Build” Ban
If you’ve just moved into a brand-new council development, don’t get too attached to the idea of buying it. To protect the supply of new homes, the government has introduced a 35-year exemption period.
Essentially, any social home built from 2025 onwards cannot be sold under Right to Buy for three and a half decades. This ensures that new houses stay in the “social” pool for at least a generation.
“Cost Floor” Protection
Lenders and councils are also tightening the “cost floor.” This rule prevents a house from being sold for less than it cost to build or maintain it.
Previously, this only looked back 15 years. Now, it’s been extended to 30 years. If your council spent £200,000 building or renovating your home in 1998, they cannot sell it to you today for a price that leaves them out of pocket, regardless of your discount eligibility.
Selling Up? The 10-Year Clawback
One of the most controversial changes is the “repayment period.” In the past, if you sold your home within five years, you had to pay back a portion of the discount.
The 2026 rules have doubled this to 10 years. If you buy your council house and try to flip it for a profit within a decade, the council will come knocking for their discount back. It’s a move clearly aimed at stopping people from using Right to Buy as a short-term investment strategy.
The “Buy-Back” Boom
On the flip side, councils have been given a new power: they now get to keep 100% of the cash from every sale. Previously, a huge chunk of that money went back to the Treasury. Now, local authorities can use that money to build or buy back homes, meaning the “one-for-one” replacement promise might actually start to happen.
The Verdict
If you’ve been a tenant for 20 years and live in an older property, Right to Buy is still a viable (if less generous) option. But for newer tenants or those in high-value new builds, the door has effectively been bolted.
